160415 - 30 Hour Free Childcare Early Implementation Parental Demand Survey TB

30 hours Free Childcare Early Implementation Parental Demand Survey Guidance and Questions

This document provides Local Authorities involved in early implementation with guidance and questions to be used with parents in their area in regards to their demand for childcare.

Protocol

When undertaking your parental demand survey it is important to first consider who you will be asking and how you will be asking them. This will include firstly deciding who you will survey. You need to decide whether you want to ask parents who have a child of eligible age (i.e. eligible for the 15 hours of free childcare), or will have by September 2016 or September 2017 if you are also testing future parental demand, or a more broader group of parents. Once you have decided this you will then have to decide how you will identify those you want to interview (your sample).

This will also include how you will ask the questionnaire, will it be a postal questionnaire sent to providers or directly to parents? An online or telephone questionnaire?

You may possibly want to follow up with parents who answered your survey at a later date, for example, when you roll out the additional 15 hours (or later).

Always make sure that respondents know:  What the questionnaire is about and why you are undertaking it (i.e. to understand current and future childcare use to improve provision for parents and their children)  They do not need to take part in the questionnaire and services will not be withheld or in any way affected as a result of taking part/not taking part or the answers they give  All their answers will be kept confidential and they or their child will not be identified in any reporting of this survey (you may want to let them know that the questionnaire will only be used internally within your local authority and DfE and not in published reports if this is the case).  The approximate time it will take to carry out the survey (we estimate 20 minutes)

Questions There are10 core questions included in this document which we ask that all Local Authorities involved in early implementation ask as part of their parental demand surveys. We have also provided some additional questions that you may also want to include.

Please note that Local Authorities are also free to include any further questions to help assess parental demand in their area or around their specific theme.

Return of data

Please provide basic descriptive statistics to the department by 22 July. We ask that the format in which you return this data is consistent across your regional cluster (we’re aware that some of you have mentioned issuing the survey as a cluster rather than individual LAs, e.g. 1 online survey available to parents within all LAs in a cluster).

1 Core questions

[Make clear to parents that the questions being asked are in relation to a specific child (i.e. a child of eligible age; eligible for 15 hours of free childcare) if you have not done so when inviting parents to take part in the survey]

Current Childcare use

1. Has your child regularly (i.e. at least once a week) received any childcare in the past 6 months from any of the following providers?

Please tick any which apply Nursery school1 Nursery class attached to primary or infants' school2 Special day school or nursery or unit for children with special educational needs3 Day nursery4 Playgroup or pre-school5 Childminder Nanny or au pair Baby-sitter who came to home Breakfast club After school club/ activities Holiday club/scheme Ex-partner / the child's other parent who 1. does not live in this household The child's grandparent(s) The child's older brother/sister Another relative A friend or neighbour Other (please specify)

1 Nursery school is a school in its own right, with most children aged 3 to 5. Sessions normally run for 2 ½ to 3 hours in the morning and/or afternoon. 2 Nursery class attached to a primary or infants' school is often a separate unit within the school, with those in the nursery class aged 3 or 4. Sessions normally run for 2½ to 3 hours in the morning and/or afternoon. 3 Special day school/nursery or unit for children with special educational needs is a nursery, school or unit for children with special educational needs. 4 Day nursery runs for the whole working day and may be closed for a few weeks in summer, if at all. This may be run by employers, private companies, community/voluntary group or the Local Authority, and can take children who are a few months to 5-years-old. 5 The term ‘pre-school’ is commonly used to describe many types of nursery education. For the purposes of this survey, pre-school is used to describe a type of playgroup. This service is often run by a community/voluntary group, parents themselves, or privately. Fees are usually charged, with sessions of up to 4 hours.

2 2. On average how many hours per week in total does your child normally spend at your childcare provider?

7 or fewer hours per week

8 - 14 hours per week

15 – 20 hours per week

41 or more hours per week

It varies

Don’t know

3. (a) The government currently provides 15 hours of free childcare per week for all 3- and 4-year-olds and some 2-year-olds. Do you currently receive any free hours under this scheme?

Yes No

4. (a) On average, how many of the free hours are you currently using per week?

5. Do you pay for any hours of childcare for your child?

Yes No

3 6. (a) If Yes, on average, how many hours of childcare do you pay for per week?

7 or fewer hours per week

26 or more hours per week

In this section, we would like to ask your views on some changes to the childcare provision the government is introducing in full from next year.

As mentioned already, currently all 3 and 4 year olds are eligible for 15 hours of free childcare per week during term time. From September 2017, some 3 and 4 year olds will be eligible for an extra 15 hours of free childcare per week.

The additional 15 hours will be available to families where both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family), and each parent earns, on average, a weekly minimum equivalent to 16 hours at national minimum wage (NMW) or national living wage (NLW), and less than £100,000 per year. This includes employed and self-employed parents as well as parents on zero hours contract who meet the criteria.

7. (a) How likely is it that you will use some or all of the additional 15 hours for your child if these were available to you now or when your child becomes eligible?

[note this will depend on who you have selected to take part in the survey]

Definitely would

Very likely

Fairly likely

Not Sure

Unlikely

Very unlikely

Definitely not

4 8. (a) How many of the additional 15 free hours of childcare per week would you use?

1-5 hours per week

6-10 hours per week

11-15 hours per week

9. How likely or unlikely would you be to do any of the following if you were able to use some or all of the 30 free hours of childcare? Please tick any which are true I would use more than one childcare provider in order to use the additional free hours if my current provider could only deliver 15 hours.

I would switch to another provider to use the full 30 hours if my current provider could only deliver 15 hours.

[for parents who do not use any childcare] I would consider using formal childcare such as a nursery, a pre-school or a childminder for my child if I could use 30 free hours of childcare.

[For parents who are currently in work] I would increase my hours or look for another job if I was able to use the additional 15 free hours of childcare per week.

[For parents who are not currently in work] I would look for work to become eligible for an additional 15 free hours of childcare for my child(ren).

[For parents with another child] I would start using formal childcare (such as a nursery, a pre-school or a childminder) or increase the childcare I use for my other child/ren.

[For parents who have a partner in work] Would your partner increase their hours of work or look for another job if they could use the additional 15 free hours of childcare?

10. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Please tick any which are true The additional 15 free hours of childcare would significantly reduce the cost of childcare for our household.

I would use the additional 15 free hours towards the childcare that I currently pay for.

[for those who have more than one dependent child] I would only use the additional 15 hours if I could use the same childcare provider for all my children.

I would use all or some of the additional 15 hours even if it meant my children had to go to different childcare providers.

Additional Questions

5 If used, these questions should be asked at specific points throughout the questionnaire, e.g. 2b would follow on from Q2 in the core questions.

Use of current 15 free hours

3b. Have you previously accessed these hours for your child?

Yes No

3c. Why doesn’t your child currently receive these free hours of childcare?

4b. At which type of childcare provider did you access the free hours for your child?

4c. On which days of the week did you receive the free hours?

Monday Friday

Tuesday Saturday

Wednesday Sunday

Thursday

4d. What would you say are the most important benefits, if any, for your household as a result of using the 15 free hours of childcare?

4e. Overall, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the way you are able to use the 15 free hours of childcare? By this it is meant the days and times the hours are available. If dissatisfied, are there any specific reasons why?

Cost of childcare

6 6b. On which days of the week do you pay for childcare?

Monday Friday

Tuesday Saturday

Wednesday Sunday

Thursday

6c. In an average week how much, if anything, do you think you spend on childcare?

Up to £10 a week or £40 a month

£11-£20 a week or £44-£80 a month

£21-£40 a week or £84-£160 a month

£41-£60 a week or £164-££240 a month

£61-£100 a week or £244-£400 a month

£101-££160 a week or £404-£640 a month

More than £161 a week or £644 a month

Intentions to use the extra 15 free hours

7b. You said that you are likely to use or would [/or would not] have used the additional free hours of childcare if these were available to you. Why is that?

8c. What would you say would be the most important benefits, if any, for your household as a whole of using the additional 15 free hours of childcare?

Accessibility

11. How easy was it to find a suitable childcare provider for your child?

7 12. Were you able to access childcare at the times and dates that were suitable for you for your child? If no, were there any specific reasons why?

Yes No

13. How easy was it to find a suitable childcare provider for your child with special educational needs and/or a disability?

14. Were you able to access childcare at the times and dates that were suitable for you for your child with special educational needs and/or a disability? If no, were there any specific reasons why?

Yes No

15. How confident are you in your childcare provider’s ability to sufficiently meet the needs of your child with special educational needs and/or a disability? Please circle

If unconfident, are there any specific reasons why?

Very confident / Confident / Unsure / Unconfident / Very unconfident

16. Is there anything in particular you would like the Department for Education or LAs to do to better support you and other parents of children with special educational needs and/ or disabilities?

Personal information - optional

Respondent (optional)

8 Name:

Gender:

Ethnicity: Please tick White Mixed

White and Black Caribbean White and Black African White and Asian Other Asian Black African/ Caribbean/ Black British Other (Specify)

Child (optional) Name:

Gender:

Ethnicity: Please tick White Mixed

White and Black Caribbean White and Black African White and Asian Other Asian Black African/ Caribbean/ Black British Other (Specify)

Does your child have any special educational needs and/or disabilities? Yes/ No

Do you have any other dependent children living with you? If answered yes, please specify age

Respondent/ Household information – optional

Working status of respondent (and partner where relevant):

In the week beginning Monday [date] and ending Sunday [date] , were you…

9 [note the dates will be the last week before the interview. If the respondent was on annual leave or maternity leave that week, ask them their usual working status]

Please Tick

Working full-time (30 or more hours per week), including self-employed

Working part-time (16-29 hours per week), including self-employed

Working part-time (1-15 hours per week), including self-employed

On a Government training scheme (e.g. the Work Programme)

Unemployed and looking for work

Unemployed and not looking for work

Looking after the home/family or someone else who is not a family member Retired Student Long term sick or disabled

Other(please specify)

Total household income:

17. What is your total household income, that is income from all sources including benefits, before tax and other deductions? Please Tick

Up to £5,199 £5,200 to £10,399

£10,400 to £20,799

£20,800 to £31,199 £31,200 to £41,599 £41,600 to £51,999

£52,000 to £99,999 or £100,000 or more

Refused

Don’t know